I will not claim to have the definitive answer of what Death Cab for Cutie meant by their lyrics in the song “When Soul Meets Body.”
I will tell you that sometimes my soul and my body are not in harmony.
SOUL, MEET BODY
Reflecting on this, I’ve realized that many times, my soul and body aren’t in alignment because my body just can’t keep up.
One example of this is when it comes to my deep love for and connection to the earth. I want to do “all the things” that honor that bond.
Sadly, it seems that list feels never ending. And you know what isn’t, especially these days?
My energy.
My body is tired, and many days, it hurts.
DREAMER, MEET REALITY
And it’s not just the physical hurdles I battle.
There are the mental ones.
Can we talk for a minute about all the stipulations regarding what is recyclable and what isn’t?
And I probably shouldn’t open this can of worms, but have you ever investigated the number of times you need to reuse a shopping bag before its environmental impact is less than those horrible plastic grocery store bags?
I’m not an expert and I don’t have an answer to this challenge, so I won’t do a deep dive here, but hopefully you get my point: Every action requires additional learning.
Change isn’t easy, and if you’re an overthinker like me, a spinning brain just grows more exhausted.
Like my body.
And you know what else? I don’t compost.
There. I said it.
I want to (mostly). But it takes effort, both mental and physical.
I tell myself I “should” do it — more on this negative self-talk in a moment — and I even tried to implement a small version of doing this by using the local compost drop-off. I lasted for a while and then “failed” after waiting a bit too long to drop off one particular compost collection.
There are monetary costs to consider, too.
After the composting “fail,” I looked into some of those magical machines that allow you to compost in your home.
In my research (because … it’s me …), I basically found the less expensive machine had lots of complaints about smelliness, and the other was crazy expensive (like almost $500 expensive).
It’s just not in the budget.
There are time constraints.
You know some things I think are totally awesome? Growing your own food. Making all your meals from fresh ingredients. Canning and freezing items so you can have some summertime favorites in the wintertime.
Time? ❌
Money? ❌
Mental Energy? ❌
Physical Energy? ❌
Yes, I listed more than one action there, but that’s partially the point. Growing your own food can be a wonderful way to decrease one’s negative impact on the earth. (Kudos to anyone doing this!) But then there’s that nagging feeling that we need to add the next step, and the next, and the one after that . . .
READER, MEET MY POINT
So far, this post has been a bit of a bummer. I’ve only complained about how hard it is to be better stewards of the earth and offered no solutions.
A while back, I wrote that I’m an “aspiring imperfectionist.” (No, I still haven’t made the T-shirt, but let me know if you’re interested!) I won’t go into all of that again, but suffice it to say, I still consider myself an environmentalist.
Am I perfect? No. There are quite a few things I could do to be even more eco-friendly.
Remember the “should” from earlier in this post? I am learning to reframe those statements to “could.”
I could compost, but right now, I have decided to focus on other environmentally friendly practices that better fit the constraints of my life today.
Originally published on Substack, October 15, 2025.
